


The Woods

by Starofwinter



Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Creature Fic, Gen, Horror, Stalking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-17
Updated: 2018-02-17
Packaged: 2019-03-20 04:57:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13710315
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starofwinter/pseuds/Starofwinter
Summary: There's something in the woods.





	The Woods

There’s something in the woods.

It’s been following us for a few days now - no one has gotten a real good look at it, but we’ve all heard it in the rustles of leaves and the slow, steady footfalls right behind the convoy.

We hear it at night too.  Sometimes it sounds like a man dying - I’ve heard that sound too damned many times not to know the faint rattling breath of lungs filling up with blood - and sometimes it sounds like the most beautiful song I’ve ever heard.  I don’t know which is worse.

Hollow saw it a few days ago.  He disappeared that night; no one knows whether it took him, or if he followed it into the trees and got lost.  We tried to look for him, but his footprints just disappeared a couple of feet into the treeline.  Captain said we needed to keep going, and we all pretended we didn’t hear how bad his voice was shaking when he said it.

There’s something in the woods.

It’s getting closer.  Nobody’s slept in the last couple of days, and we’re all on edge, snapping at each other, jumping at every little sound, watching the shadows like something’s  _ there _ .  We can hear footsteps in between the tents at night, something sniffing at the fabric, shadows of hands - no, not hands, they’re not shaped enough like hands to call them that - testing the seals.  

There aren’t any footprints left behind either, despite the mud.  Whatever’s out there, it’s not anything we’ve ever met before.

There’s something in the woods.  

Men are disappearing now, right in the middle of marches.  It picks off the ones at the back, the ones no one can tell are gone until they turn back to check on them.  One minute they’re there, and the next, they aren’t.  I don’t know what’s happening.  Our radios haven’t worked since our transport crashed, and it’s still another two days’ march to reach the contact point.  If they’re even there.  If this thing hasn’t gotten them too.

I’m afraid.  For the first time since I armored up, I’m scared.

There’s something in the woods.

There are only five of us left.  We’re staying close, but we all know when we look at each other that it’s only a matter of time.  We’re trying to keep each other’s spirits up, but between the fear, the constant rain, and the exhaustion, it’s not really working anymore.

There’s something in the woods.

It’s only me and the captain now, and we haven’t spoken a word in hours.  We’re huddled in the dying light of our last glowstick, and he’s got his arm around my chest.  I don’t know when I fall asleep, but when I wake up, I’m laid out on the bare mud, and he’s gone.

There’s something in the woods.

I’m not alone.

There’s something


End file.
